COURTESY IMAGEHonolulu real estate company Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced plans to develop the former CompUSA site on Ala Moana Boulevard into a condo tower complex called The Collection, which will also include retail shops and restaurants. It’s one of three development projects on Kamehameha Schools Our Kakaako master plan. A third project will to be announced Friday.

Alexander & Baldwin is reporting that most of the units in The Collection residential condominium tower and mid-rise building, now being built on the site of the former CompUSA store in Honolulu, have been sold.

The Honolulu-based company, in its earnings report released on Thursday, noted that about 98 percent of the project’s 451 tower and mid-rise units “have been sold under binding contracts.”

The 43-story condominium project, located at 600 Ala Moana Blvd. in Kakaako, includes 397 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units that are adjacent to a 4-story building that houses 54 loft-style studios, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.

Construction on the $200 million project began in October, when Alexander & Baldwin closed on the purchase of the three-acre site from Kamehameha Schools, and is slated to be complete by late 2016.

Meanwhile, sales for the project’s 14 three-bedroom townhomes along South and Auahi streets began last month.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc., which this week closed on the purchase of a seven-story warehouse and office building in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako for $39 million, plans to operate the property as industrial space for the foreseeable future.

“The investment in Kakaako Commerce Center expands our commercial portfolio focus on Hawaii,” Suzy Hollinger, spokeswoman for A&B, told PBN in an email this week. “Kakaako is an increasingly supply-constrained market given the conversion of commercial properties to residential development.”

“Kakaako is the California gold rush,” he told PBN. “That is where to place your money. I think it’s a stable asset that just has a great deal of opportunity now and in the future. The overall market for quality product is just extremely hard to find. There are right now, more buyers than sellers. Kakaako is really just the place to be.”

Located at 875 Waimanu St., the 204,000-square-foot center built in 1971 is home to roughly 45 tenants, including StorQuest Self Storage.

The property, which is located between Waimanu and Kawaiahao streets and has five floors of warehouse space, topped by a sixth floor of office space and a seventh-floor parking deck, has a total property assessed value of about $17 million, according to tax records.

The California firm bought the Kakaako Commerce Center for $15.9 million in 2003.

In 2006, Hawaii developer Peter Savio said he was buying the center, with plans to sell units as commercial condominiums. However, that deal fell through, he told PBN on this week.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. spent more than three years addressing the discovery of ancient human remains, or iwi, at the site of its Waihonua at Kewalo condominium project in Kakaako, according to Chairman and CEO Stanley Kuriyama.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. spent more than three years addressing the discovery of ancient human remains, or iwi, at the site of its Waihonua at Kewalo condominium project, Chairman and CEO Stanley Kuriyama told PBN.

Kuriyama told PBN on Thursday that A&B worked with the Oahu Island Burial Council, the state Historic Preservation Division and others to get the situation worked out at the site of the sold-out 43-story, 340-unit project, which has already been built up to the seventh floor.

Remains were found at the site, which is on Waimanu Street across from Ala Moana Center and next to the Hawaiki Tower, which houses KHON-TV.

Honolulu-based A&B said in its second quarter earnings report released earlier this month that 337 units at Waihonua were under binding contracts.

The first units are scheduled to completed by the first quarter of 2015.

Meantime, sales have been strong for another A&B Kakaako condo project, The Collection, where 271 of the 397 units, or about 70 percent of the 43-story tower, have been sold.

Sales for this $200 million project, located at the former CompUSA site, began about a week ago.

HAWAII AMERICANA REALTY

For the past 14 years, Mark G. Howard has practiced his skills as a licensed Realtor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada and now Principal Broker & President of 'Hawaii Americana Realty', in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has gained a competitive edge in the real estate market by earning his status as an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR).